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My guess would be that Yamaha provides contingency and bike support (parts, engineering, development, etc.) and his team & personal sponsors provide a salary. I don't think Yamaha provides any salary for James. Just my guess though. The only riders on Yamaha salary would be Hepler/Hill, who are under the Factory tent.

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My guess would be that Yamaha provides contingency and bike support (parts, engineering, development, etc.) and his team & personal sponsors provide a salary. I don't think Yamaha provides any salary for James. Just my guess though. The only riders on Yamaha salary would be Hepler/Hill, who are under the Factory tent.

Also just a guess from me....

I think that's probably an accurate scenario for a guy like Chisholm on L&M, but when you are talking about a guy like Stewart I'd be surprised if the factory doesn't also pay something in the way of salary.

I think there's been mention a few times in the past of some of the guys on PC being paid by Kawasaki, other guys not. Perhaps depending on their perceived level. I could see Kawasaki paying a guy like Villopoto or Pourcel, but then having a guy like Morais, Gosselaar or Metcalfe being paid by PC. Same with L&M, Factory Connection, etc.

Didn't it sound like a few years back that Windham's contract was paid by Honda while at FC, but during the same season that Preston wasn't paid by the factory but FC only?

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I still don't think Yamaha pays James. It makes sense to support these sattelight teams with parts and not salary - even James. That's why you see more of these teams forming...it seems the factories are working their way out of team management. Pro Circuit is the first of this kind. Kawasaki dropped the lights program a while back and let Pro Circuit run the program. Yamaha does it with L&M and JGR. Can you imagine the budget to cover all of those riders?

With Windham, he was looking for factory bikes when he came back from ingery. At first he had a full factory bike, then he just had suspension, then he went back to some degree of "full factory". Preston didn't have factory support from what I can remember...maybe just suspension.

The factories might have first rights to the riders at contract time (on sattelight teams) but I still don't think they pay the riders. That might be where you heard that Factories paid the riders on Sattelight teams. I think RC had a full factory bike with Pro Circuit graphics when he was on 125's but he was not a factory rider, he was a PC rider.

I guess you also need to consider that James gets a championship bonus from the factory on top of contingency but that is still not a salary.

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I think it might have something to do with attracting people to their Casino too..

The article addressed this:

"With Supercross having three rounds here in Anaheim and several others within driving distance, I thought we could really help San Manuel promote the casino. That was my pitch when I finally got to sit down with them. I was selling them on the exposure we could bring to the casino with race wins and championships and television. 'What was interesting was they weren't interested in promoting the casino,' Brooks adds. 'They were only concerned with the positive influence we could be on the kids in their tribe and other kids in the community. I was totally blown away when they came back with that. They explained that the casino was simply a means to an end for them, and that end is community outreach, basically... They simply want us to be positive role models for kids and encourage them to live right, stay in school, work hard, and stay out of trouble.' "

This quote is from the October 09 RacerX

MAX!!!

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It was like on ESPN or something a few months ago, he said he made about 9M last year. As said I would guess Yam pays him about 2M-3M a year. One reason he left Kaw was so he could have Red Bull as a sponsor. They make huge money from clothes, boots, helmets, goggles. ect.

I would guess winning the Supercross title would be worth 2m-3m more over several years.

Yea that where i heard it, it was on outside the lines.

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"With Supercross having three rounds here in Anaheim and several others within driving distance, I thought we could really help San Manuel promote the casino. That was my pitch when I finally got to sit down with them. I was selling them on the exposure we could bring to the casino with race wins and championships and television. 'What was interesting was they weren't interested in promoting the casino,' Brooks adds. 'They were only concerned with the positive influence we could be on the kids in their tribe and other kids in the community. I was totally blown away when they came back with that. They explained that the casino was simply a means to an end for them, and that end is community outreach, basically... They simply want us to be positive role models for kids and encourage them to live right, stay in school, work hard, and stay out of trouble.' "

This quote is from the October 09 RacerX

MAX!!!

They make SO much money from the casino, that they basically have money to burn... so in that regard, I believe them...

Really... you have enough money to give EVERYBODY in your "band", "tribe" or "nation" more than enough to live on... why not?

As long as California does not allow gambling, and the sovereign nations do, they will have enough money